Saturday's unfortunate interview at the South By Southwest Interactive technology summit in Austin, Texas may go down as one of the most Twittered incidents. But it will also be remembered as one of the dumbest ways to interview a rock star CEO.
Sarah Lacy seems to have done her homework on the interviewee, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, but didn't get a good reading of the audience. Going by several reports, she:
- Inserted herself into the story
- Annoyed the interviewee
- Annoyed the audience
- Seemed uncertain of her facts
- Alluded to the wisdom of the crowds (Digg) as "mob rule"
- Exceeded her time
All this from someone who fully understands what the Web 2.0 is all about. (Her book on silicon Valley and the rise of Web 2.0 will be out shortly.)
Bruce Nussbaum of Businessweek summed up the incident well -pointing out to Lacy making the fatal error of "playing an old, traditional, mainstream journalist role" when talking to someone in an entirely new media space. Maybe this interview technique would have worked with a Steve Ballmer, bu definitely not with Mr. Facebook.
To be fair, Lacy's interview with Digg founders later on was totally different. But there was no audience to heckle her -she did the interview strolling along downtown Austin.
Link to original postLink to original post